Wicks Out 4-6 Weeks

From bad to worse for D.C. United.....

The club knew it would be without starting goalkeeper Josh Wicks for the immediate future after he dislocated his left shoulder attempting to punch away a corner kick Sunday against San Jose. But Wicks also hurt a knee when he hit the ground, and an MRI exam Monday revealed a sprained medial collateral ligament.

He will be sidelined four to six weeks, which extends to the end of the MLS regular season. Even if he had suffered one injury and not the other, Wicks would've been out for at least a month.

The roster deadline has passed, so United cannot sign a replacement. However, under league guidelines, a long-term injury to a goalkeeper allows a club to add a goalie from the MLS player pool. In essence, however, rookie Milos Kocic is the starting goalkeeper for the rest of the regular season, teenager Bill Hamid is available for Champions League matches only, and the to-be-determined pool player will back up Kocic in league play.

No offense Poopy, but could please leave fire Soehn comments in threads that are actually relevant to talk about it. It gets really repetitive and quite annoying to see it in every thread so lets talk about Wicks instead. Kocic may have his chance to prove that he will be a long term starter on the team.

What a bizarre play. I mean, did anyone expect Wicks to be hurt at all there? My train of thought went something like "What are you doing going for this ball? Get it clear! Get up Wicks, what are you doing?! Wait, is he actually injured?" Honestly, it's one of the stranger injuries I've ever seen in MLS.

It sucks to lose Wicks at this stage, but to be honest, this is only another small piece in a full team collapse that has been underway for a while now. In addition to the (not wholly unexpected) rash of injuries, DC the players have become worse, not better, as individuals and as a team over the last few months.

it is too bad he is badly hurt. But it was a stupid play. He had no business going out that far. But you could see it developing. Number 14 for SJ was bumping with our guys in front of the goal to distract Wicks. As we have seen a number of times it is easy to rattle him and throw him off his game. As a result of the jostling you could see that Wicks was going to go for the ball no matter where it ended up. And sure enough...

This situation shows yet another reflection on the coaching staff and general manager. They thought they could get by with only 2 keepers and now that they're down to 1 they have only themselves to blame.

he is a discovery player that was signed after the deadline for free agent signings. The MLS altered its rules and allowed DC to sign him but they still can't play him in MLS games. That's why he can play in Champions League games but not MLS games.

1.. Hamid is only available for CL b/c he was signed from the Academy this year. MLS, in order to encourage Academy signings, said teams could sign a player, he wouldn't count on the cap and would be protected but he couldn't play this year.

2. I'm not so ready to pile on management for this decision. For starters, Crayton had his own injury problems. And not re-signing Crayton freed up cap space to sign other players. Maybe those players pan out (ie: Szetela) and maybe they don't. But Crayton wasn't starting and given a choice between playing Kocic or Crayton in CL, I'd go with Milos.

3. If the team had kept 3 GKs, we wouldn't have signed Hamid (and I like that signing a lot from what I've read). Furthermore, given some of our defensive backline injuries, to keep 3 GKs in that case (ie: keep Crayton or sign a full roster GK) is a backline depth player we can't sign (like Julius James).

I don't think we're going to make the playoffs. The loss to SJ was a killer. That said, I seem to recall a certain team from the swamplands of NJ who lost their regular GK, had to start a guy named Cepero who hadn't even been a backup in the regular season (he'd been loaned to a lower league, not even sure it was USL) and they made MLS Cup. I'm not arguing we'll do the same, a bunch of things need to happen. But for all of the big plays Wicks has made (and I hate to see any player injured), I'm very bothered about having him on our team. I'd much rather give Kocic a chance and if he impresses, than he's the GK we protect in the expansion draft.

Well, Hamid will get some good experience with those CCL matches. And we can see Kocic on a better platform.

After the Quakes garbage, the rest of the season is probably toast anyway, out of our last 3, KC is probably the only thing close to "sure". Chivas wants to win to stay alive. The Crew may well be wrapping up the Sheild in that game, depending on how things go. One win in our last three isnt gonna do much but help out draft next year.

A knee injury too? That play looked completely harmless and he suffers not one but two season-ending injuries at the same time. Crazy. Sucks for him but I agree with dimes on his lack of professionalism. Not the kind of leader we need between the sticks.

First -- that blows. Its a shame for that to happen to a guy who emerged from obscurity to take a starting job, and was one of the few on the team to seem to have real passion. His reflexes are great. He makes saves that Troy Perkins never would have made. Now if only Simpson can get him to harness his passion the right way, and to learn to read a game and make good decisions the way Troy did.

But . . . in the meantime, let the auditions begin (or at least get more serious). Season over. Old guys on way out. Start Kocic. Start Szetela. Lets see what they can do if given a chance to develop a rythym with the young guys who are already starters.

I thought that Wicks played well but I was very bothered by his lack of self control. I agree that the SJ players were playing Wicks quite physically to provoke some kind of reaction. Unfortunatly he ended up hurting himself. I dont think that is what the SJ players were looking for. I doubt that Wicks would have been able to do much about the two goals we gave up, but it used up a sub that we then could not use to bring in another attacking player toward the end. I know that everyone wants to see Hamid in a CCL game but that would be the dumbest thing Sohen could do. Kosic needs game time, and we need to put the best keeper we have in those games since we still have a good chance to advance. Probably a better chance to advance in CCL than to make the MLS playoffs. It really does not matter how we get to back up Milos, because he will probably never see the field. Is there any way to find out who is in the MLS player pool? Is there a chance that we may see Crayton make return to RFK?

can amember of the DCU coaching staff join the active roster. Mark Simpson, dust of your gloves!!! Also...Pete Calabrese, one of the team trainers, is also a heck of a keep. I have played against him in the WISL, and he was quite good.

This reminds me back in 2003 when we lost Rimando to injury and we had to bring in Doug warren. We barely made the playoffs by a thread but got eliminated to chicago. But I do remember winning the MLS Cup the season after that!

So, Hamid CAN play in the CCL but should he? We need to win to stay alive, so Tommy should play his better keeper. I assume that it's Kocic, at this point. But if Kocic plays and sucks, or worse, gets injured, then we have to use a pool keeper for our last, desparate MLS matches because Hamid is inelligible.

No offense UnitedFuryForever, but you are not the moderator of the blog. P McP's comment about Soehn were within the guidelines stated under "Post a Comment". Soehn's status is a hot issue right now, and relevant discussion topic on a DCU related blog.

P McP, I think Soehn could very well end up at another MLS club. If not, he likely would do well making the transition to the college game, as did Greg Andrulis.

I don't know if I'm watching the same games as everyone else who are so down on Wicks, but, yeah. Wicks isn't that bad. I had never really been on the "Wicks is our Keeper" bandwagon, but he's save our behinds numerous times. If there is a gas-station attendant or someones grandpa that would be a better keeper than Wicks is, then please, have them try out for DC next year and see what happens.

As for his injuries, I can see how he dislocated his shoulder. When he ran out there he touched the ball at the same time as the SJ player headed it, which is where it happened, I guess the header was stronger than it looked.

"Anyone who was at the game remember when that big grey cloud came over RFK? Can anyone check to see if its still there? :("

Yes I was there and then there was a briliant burst of sunshine too! The major transformation of this team from one generation to the next is going to happen soon. It has to. DCU (management, players, and fans) seems to be caught up in its own legend and has forgotten that new achievements are what create the record we're all proud of.